Philadelphia Police Using Social Media More As Crime Fighting Tool
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Philadelphia Police Department is all a-twitter with… Twitter.
With violent crime down so far this year, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey faced easy going when he went before city council Tuesday on his budget.
Ramsey did field questions about expanding crime surveillance cameras and looming retirements in the Department from the DROP program. And the Commish boasted of his departments efforts in reaching the public through social media:
"The Department's official Twitter account has 17,789 followers," Ramsey said. "We tweet alerts traffic, crime, department happenings and interact with followers who tweet questions to the department."
Ramsey said the department's website and YouTube page are also doing well, and he said 20-percent of all crime tips received in the past year came through social media.
